August started off with a bang for our ancient forests as the BC Liberal government announced, within days of each other, two new initiatives to expand forest protections on Vancouver Island.

On central and northern Vancouver Island, a series of Old-Growth Management Areas where logging is prohibited will protect almost 39,000 hectares of old-growth forests, which encompasses up to 10% of the remaining 400,000 hectares of unprotected ancient forest on Vancouver Island.

On southeastern Vancouver Island, the Ministry of Forests has enacted a Land-use Order making 1,600 hectares of Crown land off limits to logging in the extremely endangered Coastal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone.

So far these announcements have been just about the only old-growth forest protections the BC Liberal government has undertaken on Vancouver Island since they came to power in 2001, and the announcements are significant and welcome. We hope it signals the beginning of a shift in their policies – we will see…

The Ancient Forest Alliance commends the BC government for taking these important first steps forward in the protection of the Vancouver Island’s endangered forests; however, a legislated end to the logging of endangered old growth forests is still needed. Having already lost 75% of the productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland and with just 1% of the original old growth forest remaining in the Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem, it should be a no-brainer that much greater protection is still necessary.

Just as we protest bad government decisions, it is as important to say “Thank You” when governments make good decisions!

***PLEASE write a THANK YOU letter!****

Let the BC politicians know that you:

- Support the recent BC government decisions to protect 39,000 hectares of old-growth forests on northern and central Vancouver Island and 1600 hectares of Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem.

- Encourage them to undertake a province-wide Old-Growth Strategy that will protect old-growth forests everywhere they are scarce, including the remaining 400,000 hectares of endangered, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island (which once had 2.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests) in such places as the Nanoose Bay Ancient Forest, Avatar Grove, Upper Walbran Valley, Nahmint Valley, and hundreds of other areas.

- Encourage them to ensure the sustainable logging and value-added manufacturing of second-growth stands, which now constitute most of the forests in southern BC, as an alternative to eliminating the last old-growth stands.